


To Help Him of His Blindness

by ERNest



Category: SHAKESPEARE William - Works, Two Gentlemen of Verona - Shakespeare
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Love Letters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-22 01:26:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15570696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ERNest/pseuds/ERNest
Summary: Silvia is accustomed to men who will not follow her drift.





	To Help Him of His Blindness

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by watching Midsommer Flight's _amazing_ production of Two Gentlemen of Verona ([link here](https://midsommerflight.com/two-gentlemen-of-verona-summer-2018/)). I've seen it three times so far and it keeps getting better and better. It'll be showing for three more weekends as of this posting and if you're in Chicago you should definitely check it out ^_^
> 
> Title from Act IV, Scene 2.

     Silvia is accustomed to men who will not follow her drift. Either through paternal obligation or bashful inexperience or a fickle mockery of love, they count their own realities more real than her own.

     On most small matters her father the duke can be wheedled. To be sure he is stern, but not unreasonable. Silvia is herself and has value for that alone, and knows her father knows that. But her father also knows that she is the daughter of a duke and will someday be the face of the city. That kind of duty must sometimes come before individual happiness, but for all that she is kept in an ivory tower she never doubts that she is loved.

     Valentine on the other hand is simply endearingly oblivious. He must be very new to love or his pining would have turned to joy as he caught on to at least one of her attempts to catch his eye. Besides the which, he never speaks of previous conquests nor tries to sweep her off her feet with bold declarations of his devotion. His steadfast respect means more to her than promises that may yet prove false. Eventually she commissions enough letters to immediately return, and at last he catches on. She suspects his man Speed had a hand in it, a hand she palms with silver. After that, her love is still a slow study, but they so often drift on the same currents that it matters little.

     Somehow the duke learns of their connection and intended flight. To banish one suitor and press on another are all part of the same thing as far as he’s concerned, for he must vouchsafe her future and her reputation both. No amount of pleas will shake him from his path. If anything her salt tears drive him to bolster further the sea walls of his heart, and she is sealed up tighter than ever. She would give up any number of small battles just to sway him on this.

     Sir Thurio continues to be an annoyance, as he was before she even met Valentine. She can never decide if it’s better or worse that he only pursues her because her father put him up to it. For now she just needs to frown her disapproval and he’ll back off, but always he returns to stand too close. He speaks of things he assumes will interest her without listening to her opinion, or perhaps he doesn’t care whether she cares or not. With Valentine gone he gets more persistent, like he thinks he might actually have a chance. It’s almost sad, but sadder still is that his poetry and his ballads fail to improve in all that time.

     Proteus, however, is not persistent. No, he’s _relentless_. It matters not to Silvia how prettily he speaks when each jeweled word sharpens the betrayal of three people. He will not be reminded of his Julia who surely waits at home for him still, nor of her Valentine condemned to have no home at all. As for _her_ wishes, he makes it clear that she is only an object of desire.

     She thinks he holds so tightly to his idea of her to justify his inconstancy to himself. He believes in how he has loved Julia and he believes in how he now loves Silvia, and that can’t be a contradiction if both loves were too overwhelming to ignore. She’d pity him if he weren’t pressing his suit on her, but no, she’d pity poor abandoned Julia more.

     If he won’t receive her signals she will just have to refuse _his_ , and still he will not leave her window until she promises an image of herself. Little good such a phantom may do him!

     She resolves to be cold to the messenger who comes from Proteus the next morning, for he is just another man who will not hear her words. So she is surprise beyond measure to find the youth gentle and well-spoken. He does not need convincing from _her_ to regret his task, not when he already loves Julia more than his own master. She hesitates only a moment before she hands him her purse, for Julia’s sake, and is assured that Julia thanks her. At least some men are honest and can hear what she has been saying all this time.


End file.
